Adeline and Walt Holmtren have been visiting the northeastern shore of the Salton Sea for more than 50 years. A couple times each month since the early 1960s they drive their camper from their home in Aguanga in Riverside County to the Salton Sea State Recreation Area and camp for a couple of nights at the Salt Creek campground.

It is an odd place. The Salton Sea is California's largest lake and its surface elevation is about 230 feet below sea level, making it one of the lowest places on Earth. Millions of birds use the sea each winter. There is a particular smell, not always pleasant, but people get used to it quickly, they say.

One of the original 70 state parks targeted by Sacramento for closure last year because of the state’s budget mess, the area is far from self-supporting. Camping fees and day-use payments bring in only about $100,000 a year while the budget to keep it operating has been around $1.2 million. A proposal that would severely reduce staffing and other costs in hopes of keeping it open has been proffered.

Many of the parks around the state, like Palomar State Park in North County, have since been saved, or are about to be, thanks to partnerships formed with nonprofit citizen groups that promise to keep the parks open by covering any budget shortfalls.

But no such arrangement has come close at the Salton Sea and with just a couple months before the deadline, supporters are growing desperate.

They need someone to step forward. They need money. And they need it fast.

“We just haven’t been able to access the public the way we would like to be able to do so,” said Bill Meister, president of the Sea and Desert Interpretive Association, which runs the visitor center and park store and is leading the charge. He said that for nine months the association has been trying to generate interest in saving the park. They’ve contacted local and state representatives “but really haven’t had any response from them.”

“It’s going to be very tough,” Meister said. “It’s going to be a close call.”

“What we would probably need are one or two very large donations to hold us over until we can establish more permanent fundraising ability,” added Paul Reisman, the acting superintendent of the recreation area.

Salton Sea’s beginning

The Salton Sea was created in 1905 by accident when high spring flooding on the Colorado River crashed canal gates leading into the developing Imperial Valley.

For 18 months the Colorado River rushed downward into the Salton Trough. By the time engineers were able to stop the breaching water in 1907, the Salton Sea had been born at 45 miles long and 20 miles wide — equaling about 130 miles of shoreline. Over the years the salinity level has risen. The Salton Sea is now 50 percent saltier than the Pacific Ocean.

At one time the Salton Sea was a bustling tourist mecca.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, more people vacationed there then they did at Yosemite National Park. They came by the hundreds of thousands to swim, boat, camp and fish.

But over the years, as the sea’s salinity level steadily rose, killing all the fish except for millions of Tilapia (whose carcasses at times litter the shore), the lure of the lake evaporated. Many homes in the greater Salton Sea area have been abandoned and vandalized.

“Sometimes it stinks,” Adeline Holmtren said outside her camper, the only one at the campground one recent midweek afternoon. “But that’s OK. We can come here and just relax. The birds are amazing.”

The sea is home to about 400 species of birds. Pelicans and herons flew by as the Holmtren spoke.

About every year 50,000 people stop by the park to take in the strange scenery. Many are from the San Diego area but most are from out of state or even from other countries drawn to the oddity of a sea in the desert.

Deadline approaching

The sea, say those who love it, suffers from an unfortunate and unwarranted reputation. It is not polluted, they say. It is salty. Yes, sometimes fish die off by the hundreds of thousands and yes, sometimes flies are a problem, but it is a beautiful place offering amazing desert vistas for those who can appreciate it.

The bird watching, experts agree, is almost unparalleled.

The Sea and Desert Interpretive Association has informally proposed a private-public partnership with the state and suggested a much reduced annual budget of about $350,000 which would pay for three rather than eight full-time employees.

That leaves a gap of about $250,000 that needs to be closed quickly.

Acting Superintendent Reisman said the land where the recreation area sits is leased by state parks from the federal government. Should it be closed come July 1, Reisman and others fear it could never be reopened. Although the terms of the lease are still being researched, it’s possible that if the park closes all the buildings — including two restrooms and other amenities built recently, would have to be razed. And under Riverside County regulations, all sewage holding tanks would have to be filled with sand, most likely preventing the park from ever reopening, even when the economy improves. (The recreation area is in Riverside County while the Salton Sea itself is bordered by three counties — Riverside, San Diego and Imperial.)

Roy Stearns, a spokesman for the state’s Parks Department, said the department hopes Salton Sea supporters succeed. He said that if a partner cannot be found before the July 1 deadline, the park will likely close.

“However, if a partner comes along and has the resources to do the job after that date, we would work on an agreement to have that partner reopen the park. The end game here is to work to find partners to keep parks open, if at all possible.”

For more information on the Web visit www.SeaandDesert.org or call Sea and Desert Interpretive Association President Bill Meister at (760) 393-3690.